"EU agency finds banned chemicals in some 6% of cosmetics," 30 October 2024

A pilot enforcement project found that around 6% of inspected cosmetic products contained hazardous substances banned under European regulations, the European Chemicals Agency said...

The ECHA said that national enforcement agencies in the 13 European Economic Area (EEA) member states... checked almost 4,500 cosmetic products, and found banned substances in 285 of them. 

The investigators were looking for a series of chemicals banned or restricted under a pair of EU regulations, the POPs Regulation banning persistent organic pollutants, and the REACH Regulation on the registration, evaluation, authorization, and restriction of chemicals...

Enforcement agencies had taken some first steps to remove the non-compliant products from the market, the ECHA said...

The Helsinki-based organization was primarily seeking indications of the presence of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), long-chain perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs) and related substances, and cyclic siloxanes D4 and D5.  It said it often found perfluorononyl dimethicone, which degrades into PFOA and PFCAs, in pencil and crayon eyeliners and lipliners — and that D4 and D5 were often present in conditioners and hair masks...